1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate for a liquid crystal display, and more particularly, to a substrate for a liquid crystal display which can be substantially prevented from being deformed.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent advancement of technology, the increasing popularity of Internet use and the plethora of information have created ubiquitous display environments in which information is available anytime and anywhere via the Internet. Thus, displays, which are mediators for presentation of information, have begun to play an increasingly important role in the recent information-oriented society, and their application fields have been extended.
To create such ubiquitous display environments, displays must satisfy the following requirements: increased portability, capability of displaying a wide variety of multimedia information, a reduction in weight, a large screen size, high resolution, a high-speed display time, and so on.
To satisfy these requirements, a recent research trend has been to increase a display area and to decrease the density and thickness of a glass substrate constituting a display. However, in reducing the density of a glass substrate used in a display, e.g., a liquid crystal display, there is a technical limitation because physical characteristics of the glass substrate are substantially determined by a silicone dioxide (SiO2) constituting the glass substrate.
In addition, further reducing the size of a display for the purpose of achieving enhanced portability is contrary to consumers' desire for a larger area screen.
In this respect, in order to satisfy both increased portability and a large screen size, there is an increasing need for a flexible display using a plastic substrate. Such a flexible display can be manufactured using a roll-to-roll process. However, to produce the flexible display using a roll-to-roll process, special facilities for application of a plastic substrate must be established in all processes, thereby requiring considerable costs.
While research into flexible displays is currently being conducted by major LCD manufacturers, chucks specially designed for plastic substrates are used in researching the flexible displays. Thus, in order to utilize existing LCD production equipment in manufacturing the flexible displays, substantial modification of the existing production equipment is required.
One approach that has been proposed includes applying a plastic substrate attached to a glass substrate by an adhesive. According to this approach, however, the plastic substrate may undergo a warpage phenomenon due to a difference in the thermal expansion coefficient between the glass substrate and the plastic substrate during the manufacturing process.
In addition, as the thickness of a plastic substrate stacked on a glass substrate increases, the thermal expansion coefficient of the plastic substrate is increased, which makes it more difficult to apply a large screen plastic substrate to the existing LCD production equipment.
Thus, a substrate for a liquid crystal display that advantageously resists warpage while providing larger screen area is highly desirable.